Julie Claire Vistal Science Blog

Julie Claire Vistal of University of San Carlos Talamban Campus. Block N. (Weekly challenge in our science subject)

[vjulieclaire]

We have come to the end of our weekly challenge. First of all I would like to thank our dear professor, sir Robert Yasi for being patient on us, I know we were and still are hard headed but we really do would like to thank you for being there for us and for teaching us the lessons that you've thought us. So here is our last weekly challenge: Earth science. If you search up what is earth science in the internet, according to Merriam Webster it is any of the sciences (as geology, meteorology, or oceanography) that deal with the earth or with one or more of its parts, while according to google it is a branch of science dealing with the physical constitution of the earth and its atmosphere. For me earth science is a mystery. The earth is so big that you thought your knowledge about it is enough to know everything about it. I believe even though a lot of scientist and philosophers discovered things that couldn't be seen through naked eye, there is still a lot more to it that we don't know. Of course I'm still a student, and all my knowledge about earth is just a small thing compared to the knowledge of the scientist and that's why for me earth science is a mystery. But don't you know that even scientist, or that's what the internet had said, doesn't know everything about the earth. As I scroll through facebook I saw this post that says 95% of the ocean has not yet been explored. That's another reason why I believed that earth science is a mystery. But we'll never know what we'll learn in the next thousand of years from now, all we have to do is just wait and learn.

[vjulieclaire]

5 ORIGINAL HUGOT LINES ABOUT CLIMATE

[vjulieclaire]

Now let me tell you a story about my worst weather related experience I've had.

I know some of you may expect me talking about the storm Yolanda, but nope I am not going to talk about that because lucky for me I wasn't here in the Philippines during that time, so this story may not be worst for you but it is for me.

It was 12:30 that day and our next class would be on 2:30 so me and some of my classmates planned to eat in Matias just for fun. So we ate there, had fun, and enjoyed. We were eating on a part of Matias where there is no roof suddenly we felt little drops of rain but we didn't think it was something big, we didn't mind about it so we just transferred table where we wouldn't because of the rain drops.

When we finished eating we we're ready to go back to our school, but while we we're trying to ride a jeepney we noticed that the rain is getting a little bit stronger but because we we're having fun we didn't think about the flood that is coming. We just laughed and teased each other.

When a jeepney stopped we realized that we wouldn't fit inside so we divided the group, and let some of our classmates ride in first. During that time our next class would be Communication with Sir  M and we're to supposed have an extemporaneous speech, so those who aren't done with the activity rode with the first batch. Those who were on the second batch are those who are done with the activity.

A few minutes later another jeepney stopped and luckily there aren't a lot of people in that jeepney so we just fit inside. Half way during the ride the rain got so much stronger that it started flooding and by that time we realized that we we're doomed.

Suddenly the jeepney driver told us that he wouldn't drive anymore and would U-turn because the flood near our school is so high so the driver dropped us outside a store near mini stop store.

but I didn't know there was like a canal on the side of the street and my feet almost went inside, but then I stopped and because of the strong flow of the water I needed help to go on a part where there is lesser water.

When we we're on the part where there is lesser water we stopped for a while and decided to just wait for the flood to go down but the water just keeps on rising. By that time we didn't realize that mini stop was just beside that store, so we keep on looking for places where there would be no water for us to stay for a while until the flood goes down.

When we saw the mini stop we run towards there. We actually thought of getting a trash bag and put our things there so our things wouldn't be destroyed, and just swim our way to our school, but someone, I forgot who, said that we could just stay here and wait for the water to go down even just for a while. So we stayed for a few minutes and then someone, again I forgot who, said that we could go upstairs just for fun, so went on the 2nd floor of the building.

We stayed there for almost an hour and thought of calling our professor that time and asked for forgiveness if ever we couldn't be on his class on time or even worse we would be absent on his class. Thank fully sir understood our situation.

a few minutes later we saw that the rain had stopped and the flood is getting smaller so we decided to just walk our way on the street towards our school, which by the way the water was up to our knees.

there were cars that stopped in middle of the road but there are some cars that really tried to pass through the flood, but because the cars move in a very slow pace so we had the chance to just walk in the middle of the road.

why in the middle of the road and not in the side you may ask. It's because the middle of the road is little bit more higher than the side so the water is just on our knee because if we walk in the side of the road the water would've almost been in our hips. So walk there and FINALLY, we reached the school grounds and run our way towards the shuttles so we could still reach our class even just for a few minutes.

It was actually a little bit scary that time because that was my first in experiencing flooding that reached our hips and also I was scared that our professor would get angry at us, but now as I look back and thought about what happened I can't help but laugh about it.

[vjulieclaire]

Constructing our own earthquake proof building

Our professor had this activity where we would make an earthquake proof building. At first we we’re really challenged of what to do to make it really strong so it could survive the activity. On the first day we had a hard time thinking of what our structure could be for it to be strong enough. We thought a lot of shape that we think could balance the rice on the test, In the end we used a pyramid like structure that we thought could survive. It took time before we really started on our building, I thought it would be so easy but on the day that we really tried to construct our building it was hard to think of where to put this and that so it would be strong and also with our limited materials. Also with our schedule, it was hard to make time but we tried to make some time to make the building. But in the end we've made some improvements on our building after 3 days we thought it was already a successful so we tried to put an umbrella if our building could already hold things as heavy as that fortunately it did but when we tried to put a bottle of sparkle one straw suddenly bend because of how heavy the bottle is so we changed the straw and thought of combining half straws and at the tip of the straw are the paper clips so there is something that is holding the end parts and also the middle part are strong. And that was my experience in building our earthquake proof building. STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS QUESTIONS: A. During construction, how did you test the strength and stability of your structure? We tried the put an umbrella and a bottle on our building B. During construction, what strategies did you use to strengthen the weaker areas? Why? We combined or but 1 straw inside the other while on the end parts of the straw there are paper clips. So that the middle part and the end part of the straw would be strong C. What are the strongest parts of your building? Why? The lower part because it is where we made a lot of time and made sure it was sturdy. D. What are the weakest parts of your building? Why? The flooring, we hadn't really thought of what to do to make it sturdy. E. Where did you use string in your structure? Why? To connect the building to the base also to connect some flooring straws. So it would stay in place. F. Where did you use pins in your structure? Why? We didn't really used a lot of pins but most of it are used in the flooring G. If you had 5 more straws, where would you add them? Why? I would put it on the sides of our building, just like in constructions where they put X figure to make sure that that is strong to hold weights.

[vjulieclaire]

WATER CONTAMINATION:

 Our science professor gave us this image of a place and challenged us to find some things that are connected to water contamination and gave us some information's.

 and now, here's what I found:

 we could see that ridges are found mostly on the east and a broad gentle valley to the west, there is this river, which is their main river that is called the Black River, for its unusual dark, cloudy color that floats from west to east, and because the water flows from the east to west we couldn't find too much contaminated water in the east side or the side where we could fine the ridges because most contaminated water flows westwards, towards the valleys. As we can see the most contaminated well is well H and M, where well H is found near metal works while well M is found Cornhead Coal Mine. Then the second most contaminated well is well I which can be found near Earl's Fuel Depot. Next one is well D which can be found  near Metal works. last would be well E and N where we could find well E near Earl's Fuel Depot and well N can be found near Cornhead Coal Mine.

 while in spring, the most contaminated spring can be found near the spring town, it may be caused by the people who throw their garbage's there.

 While in rivers the most contaminated one is R2 which can be found Cornhead Coal mine in which its chemicals could flow through that river, then the last two is the R7 and R8 where we could find R7 in the middle of the place and R8 can be found further down to the east.

  As what I've analyze the most common reason of contamination of some of the wells are Metal Works, Cornhead Coal Mine and Earl's Fuel Depot, but as we could see the further it is from those  features the less contaminated it is, maybe it's due to water purification where water could pass through more rocks and the more they pass through rocks the more they are purified. that's all that I can find in this places I hope you enjoyed reading this, till next time, ciao!

[vjulieclaire]

One Thing that I would change

Extinction, it's hard to accept it, but it's already happening for some animals. It's hard to think that there is this certain life, that was once a group of life, they were once called a family, a family of that certain kind of animal but then one day everyone that he loved was gone. Example there was this bird if you want to you could imagine that you are that bird, he is together with his family then suddenly a loud bang now everybody's gone. He was left with just himself, starving themselves, trying to hide from everyone who is after him, but he realized there was this family from the other neighborhood so he tried to call for them, he tried to call for his friend but he didn't hear any response, he tried and tried and tried, he chirped and chirped and chirped until his chirped was gone and forgotten so another group of life had extinct. This is sad but true. In our weekly challenge, our professor asked us: From the documentary we had watched, what would be the ONE thing you would change with your lifestyle? The one thing that I would change is by slowly changing my eating habits, little by little I will not eat pork, beef, chicken and such as much as I did before.

[vjulieclaire]

In our science subject, our professor gave us a challenge where we would lessen our water consumption from our normal numbers of “kabo” to having only up to 15 “kabos” everyday. Then he gave us this questions: Questions: 1. How does it feel to have your water consumption limited to a minimal amount? It was actually hard at first, before I started the challenge I had to think of how I would do it, because usually I use a lot of waters because I shampoo my hair 3 times everyday. I wasn't supposed to start the day that I started because I was thinking of how to do it, but then the water was out that day so I decided to start that day. At first it was weird because I need to shampoo only once so I can do lesser than 15, fortunately I did it and since then for 3 days I made it as a routine so it could fit only up to 15 scoop. 2. Is this something you can do long-term? Maybe not? It feels weird for me not to shampoo my hair 3 times because it felt greasy and as smooth as it would be before the challenge, but it feels good to think that I had done it and saved a lot of water. 3. In the future, with the amount of shortages we have when it comes to water, limiting your water consumption may be inevitable. What are your thoughts on this? It may feel weird at first especially on girls because we have long hairs and needs a lot of shampoo so it would be clean but eventually we would learn to have a routine to consume lesser water.

[vjulieclaire]

This area can be found in USC Talamban campus' covered court Cebu, just this week or 2 weeks ago around the 1st days of august, this just suddenly happened. This was once a concrete built with cements, but then this happened, the concrete collapsed and detached its self from the soil. According to out lessons the main cause of detachment are rainsplash and freeze-thaw cycle. I believe rainsplash was the reason for the concrete to collapse and detach. But it could also be run off. We, the students and personnel of USC TC, all know that some certain area in USC are always flooded, so as the water accumulate on the surface it suddenly gave up. And because the soil failure just happened, the possibility of it happening is high because according to our lessons about soil erosion the more earlier or latest the soil had collapsed the more it has the possibility to happen again, especially because this area can still be flooded so the soil could collapse again due to the same reason why it suddenly collapse last 2 weeks ago, which was because of rainsplash.

[vjulieclaire]

Weekly challenge 6:

If I would be given 20 hectares of land by my wealthy, I would divide it inti three, which consist of: 25% (5 hectares) for a house Another 25% for a little commercial use so that the people all around that area could get groceries or things there rather than going somewhere else farther to save them time and money. Then for the 50% would be for the agricultural activities. We all know that here in the Philippines one of the most successful business would be the agricultural industry also I could provide labor or work to those people who need money. I as a person wouldn't just keep my money and land to myself. I think maybe it's also good to give work to those who are in need.

[vjulieclaire]

Weekly challenge #5: creating your own fictional mineral.

Warning: this is just a fictional mineral, what you'd be reading is something that is made up in my mind and totally fictional. Name: boomfin Color: vanta black Hardness: diamond Crystalline structure: ✅ Luster none vanta black color absorbs 99.96% of the light that hits it. Odor: combination of the smell of a skunk and bombardier bettle Taste: metallic taste Boomfin is said to be known as the mineral that could cure any cancer (scientist are still trying to prove it). It is located in the deepest layers of the earth, making it hard to look for. But is the most useful mineral that is known now. Even scientist and miners are having a hard time getting the mineral due to it's location of where you could find it. It usually can be found after every million years and it's because of the movements of the earths surface. Scientist are trying to find a way to liquify the mineral so it will be combined with a medicine. If liquify people with cancer should drink a small of dosage of this 3 times a day, if a person is overdosed it could kill instantly.

[vjulieclaire]

Minerals, of you combined some minerals together it could form something new, just like a rock. Rocks is something that we see everyday but we don't really acknowledge. Whenever we see rocks we don't look at the way we see cars, we don't say "oh my what a beautiful rock that is over there." No, we only really see it if we study about it or if you're in the beach. Yep, I also look for beautiful rocks at the beach. Anyways, as you don't really acknowledge rocks unless you look at it closely or touch it. One of the properties of a mineral is its texture. You wouldn't know what is the real texture of the mineral unless we touch it, because we could assume that it is rough but really it's smooth but it just have layered looking colors. I remember, once my friends and I we're talking about out first impressions with each other. Just like my explanation about the texture of a mineral, they thought I was snobbish and stuck up but then they tried to get to know me, they touched my heart and soon they said they realized how much of a great friend I am, well.. that's what they said 😉😏. You will really learn the truth if you just try and get to know the person and touch their hearts, you would really learn what is the real texture of the mineral if you touch it.

[vjulieclaire]

It's that time of the year again. Cellphones down, ballpens up, laptops off, open books, netbooks off, notebook on top. Everything is so.. How do I say this? Uhm, repetitive? Yep, it's a thing we always do every year. But when you think about it, there's something different. Even though the armchairs, the board, the walls are the same, there will always be something different. And almost everything for me is different. New chairs, new board, new room, new place, new town, new city, new environment, and most of all, new people who I want to converse with, I want to be friend with, new people who'll make me burst into laughter, who'll make me smile, who'll make me cry, who I'd be together with. But even though I have new friends and classmates, my friends from where I was, will always stay in my heart and mind. I've met a lot of new people in this school year but, my friendship with them is still strong even though we're miles and miles away. Of course I miss them every night and day, but there is nothing I can do about it. I have to deal with it. I have to deal with them being so far away from me, and I thought I'd feel lonely, but it's the opposite actually, I feel like they're still there beside me, they'd be there through my ups and downs. But everything is new to me. I'm not used to this. But maybe, just maybe, someday my new friends would make me feel loved as my friends before made me feel. No, they won't replace them, instead I would treat them equal, because equally, I love them.

[vjulieclaire]

Spheres. Sphere is everywhere. Just like the Atmosphere which is found around the earth, then there is hydrosphere, which could found above, under and on the earth, there is also Geosphere which is right under where we stand, live, walk etc. there is also what we called Biosphere, which means all living things. This spheres always give great impact to all of us. But what we don't usually notice is WE also give impact to them. And this are the impact I've made to them: Positive: * I used plastic bag instead of plastics in our grocery * I took care of my dog which is a biosphere * I took a bath faster than before to lessen the use of water Negative: * I threw some of my garbage anywhere * I killed ants and mosquitos * I used private car which can add to the vehicles that causes damage to the atmosphere

[vjulieclaire]

Who am I in the midst of this universe? If I compare myself to the universe, I am anything but something. I am nothing compare to it. If I stand beside the universe, you won't see me because of how small I am beside it. If you think about it, you may say I'm just a waste of space. I am nothing. I'm not special. If I'd be gone, the universe will still be there. Between me and the universe I am the fish and the universe is the shark, I am the cat and the universe is the tiger, I am a maya and the universe is the eagle, I am the worm and the universe is the butterfly. But that's what YOU think. For me, any negative thing you say is nothing on what I believe in. For you I may be nothing but inside my heart, I am a shark, a tiger, an eagle, and a butterfly. I may not be as beautiful as the universe and there might be people who are greater, smarter, more beautiful, faster, more athletic but for me, I am the best God could ever make me, because I am made in the image and likeness of God. I am a daughter of God. And in this universe I am a person of God. God made me for a reason, and I have to fulfill my duty. And in God's eyes, I am great. Because everything that God had made are great. And no matter how small I am compared to it, I am part of the universe because God made me.